If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Felines & Canines with reptiles -rant-

I'm sorry but I do NOT approve of letting your cat or dog play with your reptile. I see it SO MANY TIMES on FB groups I'm a part of, but whenever I say anything the admins get butthurt. That's fine, when the owner blinks and turns around to see their dog stepped on their bearded dragon, or their cat chomped the head off of their gecko they'll think twice about that one again. Have fun living with that for the rest of your life. You see it a lot with birds too, wanna know how many horror stories I heard about that pairing as well?

Please... PLEASE! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!! Do NOT go around telling people "awww look how cute this cat is pawing at this reptile! They're plaaaayiiingggg!" Did you know all it takes is a scratch to cause serious issues? The bacteria on that claw alone can kill an animal that small. I don't care if your gecko is sitting on your dogs head and the dog looks like it couldn't care one bit. All it takes is something to spook the dog to send that gecko flying or someone to push it's buttons and CHOMP! No more gecko.

I don't care how well you 'know your pet'. Don't. Do. It.

I've had my cat for 12 years now, since she was 6 months old. I know this darn cat like the back of my bloody hand. My gecko could flop out of their cage and dart across the floor and she'd just sit there and watch it, cus she knows better than to mess with the small ones. But I sure as hell ain't ganna put one of my geckos on her to crawl around. She could change her mind at any second and go "nah I don't feel like listening to you today, hello lunch!" I would NEVER allow my cat around my geckos. In fact, my geckos are in a completely different room, cut off from her access. She doesn't even go in there when I go in there.

read a story not to long ago that let their bearded dragon roam the house, and their dog stepped on it, broke it's ribs. Dragon died a couple days later unable to recover. I've seen pictures of parrots with missing heads because the owners thought it was cute to let their little bird sit near their cat. I've read stories of reptiles/birds getting scratches by cats, getting an infection even with vet care, and dying because of the massive amount of bacteria that was just introduced into their systems. Read stories of cats who got into the owner's gecko tanks and ate the geckos.

Please, just please don't @_@

I don't need to know if you're doing this now and plan to stop. I don't need to know if you think this is perfectly safe to have a PREDATOR interacting with a PREY animal. Because honestly that would just infuriate me and I'd rather not unleash my sailor mouth upon clean ears. If you agree with me, great. If you don't, I don't want to argue. I'm ranting about this here because every time I bring it up in the groups my posts get deleted on the picture of the 'cute little gecko crawling on my cat' stuff and at least here, people don't get so easily butthurt. And I need to get this off my chest. I'm already watching my home of 2 years burn away on the news and that's emotional enough (we moved before the fires hit, thank god because we were thinking of staying until January) and I'm tired of seeing all these owners do such reckless things with their animals. The last thing I want to see is another post from a person saying their pet killed their lizard.

So if you're new to the world of reptiles, please, keep your small babies safe from your cats and dogs. If you know of people that do this, kindly advise them on the consequences...

I agree with you. I also see a TON of those "cute dog and kid" photos - most of the time the dogs are fine, but I think people take huge chances posing these kids with the dogs and thinking they're adorable, when the dog could turn around and bite them in the face, or worse. There's one in particular where a spitz-type dog is eating, and a little one-year-old kid is standing behind him, poking a finger toward the ass of the dog. Yeah, you want to laugh at the picture, but if that kid follows through with that thought, somebody's gonna end up in the hospital, and somebody else is gonna end up dead. So no. You just don't take chances. I have one dog with very high prey drive. My geckos don't even get transferred to their Kritter Keepers during cleaning unless my dog is locked in her crate. The dog has a soft mouth, but it would take so little to injure or kill a gecko. I won't chance it.